From Dakota Prukop to John Weidenaar, Mitch Griebel to Taylor Sheridan, the Montana State Bobcats lose veterans across the board from last season’s potential filled but largely disappointing squad.
The one spot where the Bobcats return a collection of experience is at linebacker. All five players who started games last season — seniors Blake Braun, Fletcher Collins, and Zach Hutchins, junior Mac Bignell and sophomore Grant Collins —return, although Grant Collins and Hutchins are back playing hybrid defensive end position called “Buck”.
[restrict paid=”true”]While the group returns in tact, the production and playmaking of MSU’s linebackers must improve for Montana State to cure the ills of a Bobcat defense that gave up yards and points in bunches last season.
“I need them to show consistency in their play-making ability,” longtime MSU linebackers coach Kane Ioane, one of the holdovers from Rob Ash’s staff retained by new head coach Jeff Choate, said last week. “It’s not just being in the right position, it’s not just knowing your assignment. I want our linebacker group to be playmakers, to attack the line of scrimmage, to be fast and physical and make plays and set the tempo for this defense in a lot of different ways. We have to have communication, getting guys lined up and how we play. We have to have freakin’ all out effort, high motor on every snap. We won’t expect anything less.”
Bignell, a former walk-on safety out of Class C Drummond, burst onto the Big Sky Conference scene as a sophomore last season. The 6-foot, 205-pound knifing Sam linebacker notched 101 tackles, including 70 solo stops and 20.5 tackles for loss. Although his tackles for loss mark ranked second in the Big Sky and seventh in the FCS, Bignell earned just honorable mention All-Big Sky Conference honors for a Montana State defense that struggled all season.
After last season’s breakout campaign, the latest in long line of successful Bignells at Montana State now has lofty expectations attached to his name like those who came before him. Mac’s father, Joe, was a Hall of Fame tight end on MSU’s 1984 national championship team. His older brother, Nate exhausted his eligibility as a defensive tackle last season. His cousins Clay and Brian were both standouts for MSU earlier this decade.
Last season, Bignell showed a nose for the football and an ability to explode ball carriers with bone crushing hits. His decimation of Fort Lewis running back P.J. Hall made SportsCenter and his highlight reel seemed to make up more than half of the big plays made by the entire Bobcat defense. Now Bignell hopes to take the next step in his progression and become a more well rounded outside linebacker.
“Mac Bignell, now it’s your turn, the days of you being the young, surprise type player are over,” Ioane said. “You are now an established starter, an established All-Big Sky caliber, All-American caliber player. That’s what your expectations should be. As such, he has different responsibilities now. He has to step up as a leader and help pull this group along with him.”
Outside of Bignell, Grant Collins was Montana State’s most consistent and promising linebacker last season. As a redshirt freshman, the Bozeman High product ranked second on the Bobcats with 88 tackles, including 46 solo tackles and five tackles for loss. With the arrival of Choate and a largely new coaching staff, the Bobcats elected to move the 6-foot-4, 235-pounder to Buck defensive end.
“All it did was open the door for someone else at that inside linebacker position,” Ioane said. “We have some great candidates to fill that role, starting with Fletcher Collins. He started some games last year and proved he could play in this conference. But it puts an extra load on him within our group.”
Fletcher Collins is a former walk-on from Seattle Prep who physically transformed himself last off-season in order to earn a starting role. The cerebral inside linebacker started MSU’s first four games, notching 21 tackles before breaking his thumb and not playing in MSU’s final six games.
“I’m so proud of Fletcher Collins,” Gregorak said. “I jokingly called him Lucky my first couple of months here because I know the backstory of his injuries. It’s good to see him have some health. He’s a leader by example and I’m really proud of him. He’s trying so hard to take to the coaching and get better. He knows he’s not the most athletic middle linebacker in the league but he’s smart. Any practice you’ve seen, I bet you’ve seen 59 in a bunch of tackles.”
Collins battled Grant Collins during fall camp for the starting middle linebacker job before eventually defaulting and starting at Will. Now he’s back in the middle calling new defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak’s defense as he prepares for his final season at MSU.
“Moving back, I definitely like it more, definitely like the middle more because I have control over the defense and I can call everything,” Fletcher Collins said. “Being in the middle, you get to be more of a downhill player whereas playing outside linebacker, you have to read it and it’s more contain stuff.
“I love the new concepts a lot. We are doing a lot of stuff to mess with offenses. I’m more comfortable now that I have experience from last year and being a senior this year, I feel way more at home.”
Hutchins has been shuffled back and forth from defensive line to linebacker for the last two seasons. As a sophomore defensive end in 2014, he notched 2.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. Last season, he spent much of the off-season working at linebacker and keeping his weight down only to be moved back up front by the end of the year. He started one game at Will linebacker but did most of his damage at end despite fighting injuries. His three sacks came against Division II Fort Lewis, FCS independent East Tennessee State and Big Sky bottom feeder Sacramento State. Hutchins is back at Buck end this spring.
Without any competition at Will linebacker, Braun looks like the man to beat. The 6-foot-2, 220-pound former safety from Riverside, California started the last seven games of the season, notching 47 tackles, including 29 solo stops and one tackle for loss.
“I want to make sure my guys are sound and are where they are supposed to be on any given snap. Then when they are there and the play comes their way, that’s when you make the play,” Ioane said. “Whether the football is in the air and you step in front of it and pick it off or you are attacking the line of scrimmage and forcing the ball carrier somewhere and making a play on the football. On ball production.”
Behind the veteran linebackers is a group of unproven upstarts waiting their turns. Redshirt freshman Walker Cozzie, a 6-foot-1, 220-pound redshirt freshman out of Helena Capital, is Collins’ backup at Mike. Josh Hill, a 6-foot, 200-pound redshirt freshman and former Class AA Defensive MVP out of Kalispell Glacier, is Braun’s backup at Will. Senior Joey Michael, a 6-foot-3, 205-pounder who has been a special teams standout the last two seasons, is Bignell’s backup at Sam.
Last season, the five players who earned starts at linebacker replaced the veteran trio of Alex Singleton, Cole Moore and Na’a Moeakiola, three players who started for two full seasons alongside one another. The Bobcats hopes this group can transform from upstarts to veterans in a hurry.
“Being a senior slowly starts to hit you but you have to keep pushing through it and focus on the team,” Fletcher Collins said. “This is my senior season but it’s about the team. Last season lingers and our goal is to be way better than that. We are really harping on the little things. We didn’t harp that hard last year. Our coaches are always telling us little things turn into big things.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
